Cook employee charged with stealing from office

August 15, 2007|By Kristen Kridel, Tribune staff reporter

A former manager with the Cook County assessor's office was charged Tuesday with stealing nearly $170,000 from the county to help pay for her daughter's college tuition and shopping sprees at upscale department stories, attorneys said.

Joyce Pierce, 51, of Chicago was indicted on 11 felony charges, including theft of more than $100,000, official misconduct and continuing a financial crimes enterprise, Assistant State's Atty. John Carey said.

Pierce of the 10000 block of South Rhodes Avenue has admitted she was involved in the thefts and intends to make full restitution, said her attorney, Neil Cohen.

Pierce, who had access to the funds through her $78,000-a-year post with the county, withdrew the money from a county bank account, Carey said. She then bought money orders that she made out to various credit card companies to pay in part for the shopping sprees, according to the prosecutor.

Pierce's attorney said much of the money went to pay for her daughter's schooling at the University of Pennsylvania, but Carey said he was aware of only one check for $750 made out to the university. Pierce, who worked for the assessor's office for eight years, stole the money between November 2002 and November 2005from a fund collected from Freedom of Information Act requests.

The county auditor notified county Assessor James Houlihan last year that her staff could not complete an audit of the account because some documents were missing and altered.

In a July 2006 letter previously obtained by the Tribune, the auditor told Houlihan that "bank statements appeared to have been altered in an attempt to cover up withdrawals that had been made from the FOI bank account."

Pierce pleaded not guilty Tuesday to all charges, and Judge Clayton Crane set bail at $110,000. She left the courthouse without comment after posting the required $11,000 in cash. If convicted, she faces up to 15 years in prison, Carey said.